Dances With Wolves (1990)

In 1990, there was a catastrophe at the Oscars (not the Oscar family, that was 1991) when ‘Dances With Wolves’ beat GoodFellas and the Godfather Part III got nominated for Best Picture. A truly terrible event if you ask me, Martin Scorsese or the wider film community. The thing about those Oscars was that Dances With Wolves was innovative in its moral views without being particularly new technically while GoodFellas was new in acting, writing, music, direction and editing (though cursing was a factor, just like when I got asked to leave my job in a nursery school) while The Godfather Part III drew too heavily on The Godfather for inspiration and Part II for plot and didn’t change with the Independent/CGI/Disney Revolution of the 90s. Aside from that, Dances With Wolves is a finely directed and beautifully photographed film that reminds me of Out Of Africa (and its sequel, Into Europe) and the messages are interesting to analyse which I will do now in excessive length and detail. Firstly, the good and bad of Indians and Americans are interesting though underdeveloped and there is no explanation for the evil of the Americans (many of them were probably mentally damaged by the Civil War or were just ignorant). However, it was the Sioux who were known for being savage warmongering thieves (basically Ulstermen with better suntans). And another thing is the fact that my mum got me embroiled in an unprovoked argument over whether or not colonialism was a bad thing. She says its bad (and that I’m old-fashioned and sexist, even though I’m thoroughly modern but then again she‘s a woman so what does she know about anything other than housework?) and I said that people didn’t know better so I’m right because my opinion’s fact. But in all Dances With Wolves is a good film, not a great film. Its quiet and slow and well acted, but there’s a lack of force and punch behind the drama (like Out Of Africa…. again). Still it’s a nicer three hours spent relaxing than watching Joe Pesci hitting people (definitely fun but sometimes you just need some peace and quiet and this film provides it) and is nice light enterainment that doesn’t collapse into melodrama like some race themed epics (Avatar).